With more than 375 objects and archival documents from the Musée de la civilisation collections, accompanied by original film montages, People of Québec…Then and Now brings to life key moments in Québec history. This reference exhibition provides a framework for understanding today's Québec. It chronicles the life of the first peoples who inhabited Québec, the contacts between the Aboriginal peoples and the Europeans, as well as life in the days of New France and under British rule. It bears witness to the arrival of successive waves of immigration. It illustrates the shift from a rural way of life to an urban one. It pauses on the legacy of the Quiet Revolution. Then, it invites to a reflection about the Québec of 1980 to present.

The new version of the exhibition, opened in April 2017, gives the final word to the visitors, who get an occasion to share their vision of contemporary Québec. Who knows? Their answers may end up in the exhibition on the "wall of today's Québec", a real dialogue between the Museum and the public about what is most representative of the recent years of Québec's history.